The answer to this question is: “Possibly, but unless you live in a year-round sunny climate, probably not.”
Especially if you live in states like I do (Minnesota) where it has been so exceptionally cold all winter that you can’t stay outside for more than a few minutes some days. Even then, we have to be so bundled up that the only body parts we may be exposing are our eyeballs.
Exposing our bare skin to the sunlight 15 minutes several times each week is said to provide enough vitamin D for us. Sunlight is the best way and the most useable form to get this vitamin to over 2000 of our genes that depend on it. (Skin exposed to sunshine indoors through a window will not produce vitamin D. Cloudy days, shade, and having dark-colored skin also cut down on the amount of vitamin D the skin makes).
With that being said, I have to note the importance of limiting your exposure to sunlight in order to lower the risk for skin cancer. When out in the sun for more than a few minutes, wear protective clothing and apply sunscreen with an SPF (sun protection factor) of 8 or more. Tanning beds also cause the skin to make vitamin D, but pose similar risks for skin cancer.
Since most of us cannot get sufficient sunlight, especially this time of year, what else we can do to increase our intake of vitamin D?
Actually, very few foods naturally have vitamin D. Fortified foods provide most of the vitamin D in American diets, but even if one includes fortified foods, only about 10% of the vitamin D we get comes from what we eat. Your best bets for getting vitamin D in food comes from canned pink salmon, canned tuna, mackerel and cod liver oil. Eggs, vitamin D-fortified milk, fortified orange juice, fortified cereal, fortified margarine, sardines, fish roe, beef liver, cheese, egg yolks and some mushrooms also contain the vitamin.
Between the sunlight that we are able to get and the foods that we eat, many Americans are still vitamin D deficient and almost no one has levels that are too high. Young people tend to have higher blood levels of vitamin D than older people and males have higher levels than females. By race, non-Hispanic blacks tend to have the lowest levels and non-Hispanic whites the highest.
A study published recently in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research suggests that your body may make better use of a vitamin D supplement if you take it with your largest meal. This can boost the level of vitamin D in your blood by an average of 56 percent! (Taking the supplement between a meal with water tends to just flush it out the kidneys).
An interesting tidbit:
Did you know that vitamin D is actually a hormone rather than a vitamin?
Allow me to try and explain…
A vitamin is an essential nutrient that a living being must acquire in tiny amounts from the diet; it’s a chemical that’s essential for your body but that your body can’t make so it has to be eaten. Vitamin D is make when our skin is exposed to the sunlight. Vitamin D becomes a hormone called calcitriol (active vitamin D) after your body metabolizes it. So what is a hormone? A hormone is a chemical in your body that regulates your physiology. Since human physiology is defined as the science of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of normal humans, you can understand why (the long way around)it’s so important for us to get enough vitamin D!
What else does vitamin D do for us?
One important thing that vitamin D contributes to is normal bone growth during childhood and for maintaining bone density and strength during adulthood. Another large role that this vitamin has is helping the body absorb calcium and mineral absorption from foods and supplements. Muscles need vitamin D to move, nerves need it to carry messages between the brain and every body part, and the immune system needs vitamin D to fight off invading bacteria and viruses. Vitamin D is also being studied for connections to several diseases and medical problems, including diabetes, hypertension, and autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis. Some studies suggest that vitamin D may protect against colon cancer and maybe even cancers of the prostate and breast. Vitamin D is also important for cell growth and development, it helps our immune system, can help with psoriasis (the skin condition that causes skin redness and irritation) and can even reduce symptoms of tinnitus (ear infections) and improve hearing loss. (All three of my children suffered from frequent ear infections for years before they finally “outgrew” them. My youngest child even had tubes in his ears. I wonder now what increasing their vitamin D intake may have done for them…) Vitamin D is also strongly linked to four main autoimmune disorders (ADHD, autism, allergies, asthma) since it is so important to the immune system.
How do we know if we are getting enough vitamin D and what can we do if we are not?
The chances are very high that even with all of the stars aligned, you may very well be deficient in vitamin D and may want to consider vitamin D supplementation. The amount that you need depends upon your age. Below are the average daily recommended amount from the Food and Nutrition Board, which is a division of the National Institute of Health. The amounts are listed in International Units (IU).
| Life Stage | Recommended Amount |
|
Birth to 12 months |
400 IU |
|
Children 1–13 years |
600 IU |
|
Teens 14–18 years |
600 IU |
|
Adults 19–70 years |
600 IU |
|
Adults 71 years and older |
800 IU |
|
Pregnant and breastfeeding women |
600 IU |
What are the signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency? Children
- Delayed growth and development (child begins crawling and walking late)
- Irritability and restlessness
- Rickets: softening of bones, spinal deformities, bowed legs, knock knees, enlargement of rib-sternum joints
- Delayed tooth eruption and poorly formed tooth enamel
- Impaired immune response with increased risk of infection
Adolescents
- Impaired growth of bones and musculature
- Swelling and pain at the end of long bones, especially at the knee
- Impaired immune response with increased risk of infection
Adults
- Loss of bone mineral from the skeleton with increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures
- Hearing loss and ringing in the ears
- Muscle weakness, particularly around the hip and pelvis
- Possible increased risk of colorectal and breast cancer
- Possible increased risk of high blood pressure Impaired immune response with increased risk of infection
Certain groups of people may not get enough vitamin D, including:
- Breastfed infants, since human milk is a poor source of the nutrient. Breastfed infants should be given a supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D each day.
- Older adults, since their skin doesn’t make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight as efficiently as when they were young, and their kidneys are less able to convert vitamin D to its active form.
- People with dark skin, because their skin has less ability to produce vitamin D from the sun.
- People with disorders such as Crohn’s disease or celiac disease who don’t handle fat properly, because vitamin D needs fat to be absorbed.
- Pregnant and breast-feeding women, as well as unborn children
- Obese people, because their body fat binds to some vitamin D and prevents it from getting into the blood.
Can I Get Too Much Vitamin D?
Vitamin D toxicity almost always occurs from overuse of supplements. But, yes, if the amount of vitamin D in your blood becomes too high, you can get toxic from it. Signs of toxicity include nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness, and weight loss. And by raising blood levels of calcium, (which remember vitamin D does), you can symptoms of confusion, disorientation, and problems with heart rhythm. Excess vitamin D can also damage the kidneys. Good to Note: Excessive sun exposure doesn’t cause vitamin D poisoning because the body limits the amount of vitamin D that is produced. Are there any interactions with vitamin D and other supplements and medications? Like most dietary supplements, vitamin D may interact or interfere with medicines or supplements you might be taking. Here are some of them, most of which can impair how the body handles vitamin D and they can also lower calcium absorption:
- Prednisone and other corticosteroid medicines to reduce inflammation
- Both the weight-loss drug orlistat (brand names Xenical® and Alli®) and the cholesterol-lowering drug cholestyramine (brand names Questran®, LoCholest®, and Prevalite®)
- Both phenobarbital and phenytoin (brand name Dilantin®), used to prevent and control epileptic seizures
Your doctor or pharmacist should be able to tell you if certain dietary supplements might interact or interfere with your prescription or over-the-counter medicines.
Certain groups of people may be may be more susceptible to not getting enough vitamin D:
- Breastfed infants, since human milk is a poor source of the nutrient. (Breastfed infants should be given a supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D each day).
- Older adults, since their skin doesn’t make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight as efficiently as when they were young, and their kidneys are less able to convert vitamin D to its active form.
- People with dark skin, because their skin has less ability to produce vitamin D from the sun.
- People with disorders such as Crohn’s disease or celiac disease who don’t handle fat properly, because vitamin D needs fat to be absorbed.
- Pregnant and breast-feeding women
- Obese people, because their body fat binds to some vitamin D and prevents it from getting into the blood.
You can actually draw a line horizontally across the middle of the United States and EVERY state above that line has significantly more cases of everything from depression, anxiety, MS, Alzheimers, dementia, cancer, heart issues and overall mortality! (Yep, not getting enough sunlight in the colder half of the country is a big culprit). This fact is what makes it so crucial to use vitamin D supplements.
Periodic blood tests are probably the most accurate way to check your level of vitamin D. According to the Institute of Medicine, blood volume ( ranging from 0-100 percent), 30 and below is associated with severe vitamin D deficiency. Levels between 30 and 50 are considered inadequate, while levels greater than 50 are generally considered adequate for bone and overall health if you are a healthy adult. (Levels greater than 150 may pose a risk for health problems).
A friend of mine, Sonia, says that she needed to take 11,000 I.U.s to get a blood volume of 47 and she, along with her doctor feels that 70-80 is ideal. “People are often afraid of taking too much vitamin D and usually take far too little. However, because it is a fat soluble vitamin (so you don’t just pee out the extra like B vitamins or vitamin C) you can get take too much and get toxic because most people can’t absorb it properly. This is why you need to get a few blood tests until you find the right amount for you,” Sonia recommends.
She also feels strongly that it’s best to get your supplement in the form of cod liver oil. (She suggests a fermented cod liver oil like Green Pastures brand because it is a food-based version and is therefore more easily absorbed into your body. After much research, and again working with her homeopathic doctor, Sonia says that the next best way to get the supplement is in a liquid or pill version of vitamin D that is combined with vitamin K2, to have maximum absorbability. “If you choose to take pills, you will probably need to take several, so it’s much easier to just get the liquid.” The liquid cod liver oil mentioned above that Sonia purchases for everyone in her family comes in orange and cinnamon flavors and she takes two teaspoons of it. ” You just dump the spoon on the back of your tongue and take something yummy afterwards. You get the bonus of a REALLY good quality fish oil and high vitamin A content besides the vitamin D in the cod liver oil.”
“It takes a blood volume level of 70-80 to start to feel benefits for most psychological issues, so for someone like me who has had depression anxiety issues my whole life, I am actually feeling really good at a volume of 50,” she adds. She just had her third child a few weeks ago and says that “this postpartum experience is unlike the birth of her other two children and she attributes it to her increased intake of a good vitamin D supplement. “I had horrible postpartum depression and especially anxiety with both of my other 2 kiddos. Vitamin D is the kicker. ”
Wow – what a testimonial! I am getting a different vitamin D supplement and getting my level checked at my next Doctor’s appointment!
Thanks to all for reading, and especially to my contributing author Sonia!
Jayne
earthshealingblog 
